DOUBLE MEDALS: A LOOMING DANGER, AN UNENDING MENACE

A
few months ago, many news portals online, sound, print and television carried a
story about President John Dramani Mahama promising to reward the taxi driver
who thwarted the escape of the two robbers involved in the Cantonments robbery
incident with an apartment. The announcement was made by the Vice President K.
B. Amissah-Arthur when he hosted the taxi driver, Nana Yaw, at the Flagstaff
House. He also commended the taxi driver for his heroic act. Two days after
honoring the invite to the Flagstaff House, the Management of KOALA Supermarket
presented a new Chevrolet Optra Saloon Car to the taxi driver who foiled a
robbery attack on a KOALA employee, (Lydia Horsu) at Cantonments in Accra. The
presentation was in fulfilment of a promise made to the taxi driver after his
heroic deed came to light.

Many
people are being rewarded with double medals on daily basis for the good deeds
and exceptional behavior like Nana Yaw. However, the story happens to be
different for many young teenage girls in both rural and urban areas across
Ghana. Whilst some students are gaining double medals such as regional and
national awards for their distinguishing performance in BECE, others complete
with pregnancies or a baby and terrible results. Theirs unfortunately, is
double agony! The rate at which cases of teenage pregnancy are recorded
annually during such a period is very alarming.

STATISTICS:

The
attention of Ghanaians has been called severally towards teenage pregnancy.
Getting to the end of every academic year when Junior High School students take
their Basic Education Certification Examination (BECE), one often hear on the
news about some girls turning up to write their papers pregnant. Statistics from
most exam centers may vary however across the ten regions of Ghana; for example
in the Eastern region alone, 33 females failed to sit their exam as a result of
pregnancy in 2009. The Western region recorded 572 teenage pregnancies with
girls as young as 10 getting pregnant and dropping out of schools. In the
Ashanti Region at least 5 girls wrote their BECE while pregnant and a minimum
of 3 as mothers. The average age of these girls is 15 per statistics from most
centers where cases of this nature have been recorded. The statistics are much
higher and worrisome in other regions of Ghana. Last year, the female caucus of
Parliament in the month of July, 2015 expressed their worry about the growing
phenomenon. Alarmed at the statistics, the women of the house then followed up
with a news conference together with queen mothers from the Central Region,
where the menace is on the rise. Close to 14,000 teenagers in the region got
pregnant last year indicating a 64% increase in the region over the previous
years. Teenage births form a high percentage of the total births in the
country.

Consequentially,
teenagers who get pregnant are solely blamed for their condition and may
forever not recover from the slip whilst the male culprits in most cases go
scot-free to pursue the personal interest including impregnating other
teenagers.

CAUSES:

The
causes of this menace though numerous primarily is poverty. We no more adore
the educated; we glorify wealth whether gotten legally or not. In the rural
areas some parents literally push their teenage girls into unhealthy relations
so as to get some peanut. Most urban parents on the other hand leave home at
dawn returning when children are asleep oblivion of what is going on.

A
lot of parents usually do not know where their children/wards would be after
that Saturday afternoon class or the evening church rehearsals. We are always
busy attending social gatherings and functions such as funerals, weddings and
others to the detriment of being with the children. The case of homes with
single parent may be worse. Others also don’t really mind allowing their children
hang out around the mall for so long meeting friends and even strangers who
could be older than they are.

Unfortunately,
gone are the days when the upbringing of a child is the responsibility of the
society one belongs to as a whole. We have become nucleus and one dare not
correct a “straying” or wayward child.

It
is also true many adolescents report pressured by their peers to have sex
before they are ready. Children who are not shown love and affection from
parents will seek it out from their peers. Others argue that, primarily low
self-esteem is among the major causes of teen pregnancy.Let us face it, the proliferation of
obscenity on our television stations in the name of modernity is also a major
cause. We as a people swallow everything foreign hook, line and sinker! The telenovelas
especially have come to adulterate our culture. I must confess that moral degeneration
of modern day Ghana is a leading cause of teenage pregnancy and this is as a
result of what our teenagers see on television these days.

Gone
are the days when an un-married teenage girl that gets pregnant is regarded as
bringing shame to the family! In recent news, a mother in the Northern region
butchered her 22 year old pregnant daughter. Murder suddenly becomes less of a
crime in the eyes of a disappointed mother as though pregnancy ever where a
crime. Those were the days when “kayayei” apart from being adults had homes they
could return to at the close of the day. Most were responsible mothers. There
was no streetism then, and parents
will not frown on the disciplining of the children by relatives and others in
their society.

(In
South Africa) today, To protect teenage girls from HIV/AIDS and unwanted
pregnancy in the Uthukela district located on the eastern sides of the
KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, the district leadership is making a
‘good example’ out of 16 supposedly virgin teenage girls by granting them a
conditional scholarship to the University. Double medals? The lucky 16 girls
that secured themselves the scholarship will have to take regular virginity
test to continue receiving the bursary. As expected, this did not only received
its fair share of condemnation by some Human Rights organizations based in
South Africa, but it has generated a huge and mixed reactions and discussions
amongst many people.

Recently,
I listened to some young participants at this year’s Afri-One Youth Forum, held
at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Dzworwulu- Accra, debate amongst themselves on
how a similar move in Ghana, could help encourage teenage girls to stay chaste.

SUPPORT
SYSTEM:

Poor
education on sexual health and reproductive health rights is wrecking the lives
of many girls in Ghana. Many girls and women after giving birth are not able to
continue their education. The few, who do, go home with very bad grades and do
not make it to senior high school. Instead of providing a support system they
are punished to serve as a deterrent and in some societies they are left to
their fate or even kicked out of their homes while others are ridiculed by the
hour. One would think perhaps it is possible for girls to get pregnant all by
themselves. However, the nonexistence of a supportive system for pregnant girls
encourages unsafe abortions, complications and deaths. Good nutritional therapy
and ante-natal care is often not mentioned as rights for pregnant girls.

THE
WAY FORWARD:

Sadly,
teenage pregnancy has gradual become part of our culture now everywhere; we as
a nation have to come to terms with it and find ways and means to reduce this
scourge to the barest minimum. It is not enough talking about it. What are the
chances of the teenage mother rising up from the dust to an enviable position
in life? What will the future of the children born to this unfortunate girls
going to be without proper care and up-bring? Or theirs too will be a kind of
vicious circle? It is time the issue is tackled with all the energy and
resources it requires.

This
will require two prong efforts (action?) – at home and at school. Teachers will
have to be empowered by the provision of the necessary tools, books and other
resources to teach sex education without parents kicking against it. The
government comes in here. Parents must support the teachers; after all the
teachers are only playing a complimentary role.

·Providing positive
role modeling: In the past, most children had role models and parents do go to
extent of selecting people they will want their child to be like. Whether the
children of today know of role models is another issue. It is time parents feed
the children/wards with positive role models irrespective of one status in
society.

·Parents must create
the conducive atmosphere in their homes whether they are financially sound or
not to make the child want to stay and learn. It is not always about money!

·Families with two
parents in the home have a lower incidence of teen pregnancies. However, even
as a single parent, you can still extend the love, affection, and care your
child needs. As a single parent you have less time for yourself, but your child
needs a positive role model.

·Knowing where your
teens are going and whom they are with is basic Parenting 101. If you don't
know the kids they are hanging out with, get to know them. Allow your teenage
child to have friends over; but make sure you educate them on the repercussions
of any wrongful choices he or she will make. Where possible, get to know the
parents of their friends.

·Agreed it is not possible
to hang on your teenage child like a fly to flypaper. So, give him/her the
tools to make good decisions. Talk to him/her about sex and birth control, and
the causes of teen pregnancy. You wouldn't want to withhold information about
preventing type 2 diabetes, so why would you withhold how to prevent teen
pregnancy or STDs? In recent times, YOLO (a popular TV series on adolescent reproductive
health) offers parents and teens an opportunity to discuss issues of adolescent
reproductive health.

·Be the parent your
teenage child needs. Be available and interested in their lives. Ask questions.
Set rules and stick by them. Be the bad guy because that is the job you signed
up for when you had children. Above all, lead them with love.

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